Topic: How does mature content play into your gaming experience?

What?

I meant that I don't care about mature content being in the game. It doesn't affect my gaming experience, all I care about is if a game's good or fun. If the game happens to have a ton of mature content then so be it

Please don't laugh at me (or do)... But I recently bought a PS4 and traded on craigslist the digital code for the game that came with it (nathan drake collection.. not my style of game) for a physical copy of GTAV. I have nothing against violent video games, or anything censor-relatated, but I actually got nauseated only about 20 minutes into the game Of course I realize what the franchise is about, but I never actually played an of them for more than a few minutes (have a few of them for various systems because they always wind up in the sale bins and stuff). Maybe because of so much violence in this world in general, and maybe my own worried attitude about life, but I was so turned off and physically ill from that game just 20 minutes in? I couldn't comprehend what was going on anyway. I do love racing games where you can shove other people off the road and stuff so i'm not a total prude, but i think you know what i mean.

There's a line, for me it was crossed in GTAV, but i've never been into heavy violent games (Friday the 13th the NES doesn't count!)

Define "mature".

I want to stress the point that 'mature' does not mean literally older people, but rather complex subject matter like The Last of Us' (aaand not much else's...).

The Witcher 3 really bugged me narratively in that felt like old people rehashing typical story tropes (loss, parenthood, confrontation, and social strife [I realize The Last of Us hits on a lot of those same things, but I think it was much better paced because it wasn't an open world game. And I just think the characters were better developed within the confines of the game.]).

It's not that I dislike games about people different—older—than myself, and I think older people deserve their fair representation in mass media, the same as all other groups, but that can't be all there is. No one touts Laura Croft (2013) as a paragon of female representation in games because she was just female—that was all there was (W3 is obviously a lot better than Tomb Raider, but my point remains). The game's plot hard larger systemic issues and the characterizations were too vague to mean much.

I just really don't want gaming narratives—any, really—to turn into film-like acting affairs governed by facial expressions as much as they are the words said. (For context I usually disagree with what the general zeitgeist considers 'good acting.') I don't care what expression X character is making or how 'well acted' it is, but rather the meaning of that character or the plot they're acting within. Good game stories have always had to do that—rely on the writing or scene direction over the acting, because there was no acting.

And I don't want the medium to lose that (occasional) strength as it embraces new technologies like realistic facial animation.